Law360's The Term - News & Analysis on the Supreme Court
The Term is a podcast from Law360 for the busy U.S. Supreme Court watcher. Give us about 15 minutes each week and we'll catch you up on all the big action at the nation's highest court, along with a list of what to watch in the coming sessions. Hosts senior Supreme Court reporter Jimmy Hoover in Washington, D.C. and editor-at-large Natalie Rodriguez in New York City cut through a busy docket to focus on the key cases and developments everyone will be talking about.
Episodes
July 6, 2023 • 45 mins
Another U.S. Supreme Court season is in the books, and while the final week of opinions featured some supermajority holdings along party lines on divisive issues like affirmative action and gay rights, we also saw a number of decisions with unexpected lineups on issues like voting rights and religious freedom. This week, the hosts of both Pro Say and The Term team up to discuss the surprising unanimity we saw in many of the justice...
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June 30, 2023 • 23 mins
The U.S. Supreme Court wrapped up its term on Friday with a pair of monumental opinions. First, the court ruled that a Christian website designer in Colorado can refuse services for same-sex weddings on account of her protected free speech rights, and in a second case struck down President Joe Biden’s ambitious student loan forgiveness plan. We welcome Holland & Hart partner Christopher Jackson as a guest to give us the highlights ...
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June 29, 2023 • 29 mins
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday dismantled affirmative action in a 6-3 majority opinion which held that race-based admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Law360 senior Boston courts reporter Chris Villani joins us to discuss the monumental ruling and its sweeping implications for academia and a potentially broad swath of the workforce. Also ...
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June 24, 2023 • 20 mins
The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on a pair of important immigration questions Friday morning, deciding in one opinion to uphold a federal law that makes it a crime to encourage illegal immigration, and in another opinion reviving the Biden Administration’s selective deportation policy over challenges from the state of Texas and others. On this week’s episode of The Term we welcome Law360 senior immigration reporter Britain Eakin w...
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June 16, 2023 • 13 mins
The Indian Child Welfare Act, a 1978 federal law designed to stop the state and federal practice of removing Native American children from their communities, survived the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday after a 7-2 majority held that the law does not illegally tread on state authority in regulating child custody programs. The justices stopped short of deciding the question of whether the law discriminated against non-native parents,...
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June 9, 2023 • 23 mins
In one of the blockbuster voting rights cases of the Supreme Court term, a five-justice majority on Thursday concluded that an Alabama congressional map drawn following the 2020 census diluted Black voter representation in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Alabama’s electoral map packed a large number of Black voters into a single district, and the state argued it could not be redrawn to add a second majority-Black ...
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June 1, 2023 • 12 mins
In one of the blockbuster employment cases of the term, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday gave companies the green light to sue over strikes that are structured to cause intentional damage to their property, dealing a blow to unions who argued that exposing strike actions to litigation could chill worker collective action. We talk you through the details and implications of this 8-1 opinion on this week’s episode of The Term.
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May 25, 2023 • 15 mins
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday set out to clarify what constitutes “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act and, in the process, settled on a more narrow reading that will limit the federal government’s authority to regulate wetlands. On this week’s episode of The Term, Law360 environmental senior reporter Juan Carlos Rodriguez drops by to explain the opinion as well as the important consequences it will have for...
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May 19, 2023 • 22 mins
The case that many court watchers speculated could break the internet by curtailing protections for social media companies sued over content on their platforms landed with a thud on Thursday, as the Supreme Court remanded the case back without weighing in on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. On this week’s episode of The Term we talk through how the justices reached that conclusion, plus a blockbuster copyright decisio...
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May 11, 2023 • 17 mins
The U.S. Supreme Court finally chipped away at its mountain of outstanding opinions, releasing five decisions on Thursday. Among those, one upheld a California law banning in-state sales of pork products that come from animals kept in confined spaces, and another favored a trans asylum seeker who sought an appellate court review of their immigration proceedings. We talk through the justices’ latest round of writing and where they l...
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May 4, 2023 • 21 mins
The U.S. Supreme Court took up a case this week that could be the end of the road for a nearly 40-year precedent requiring judges to defer to federal agencies when interpreting statutes that are ambiguous – otherwise known as Chevron doctrine. On this week’s episode of The Term, we talk through how the issue landed at the court, and how far it might go in rethinking the precedent. Also this week, partisan politics were on full disp...
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April 27, 2023 • 24 mins
The Supreme Court this week grappled with an important procedural issue – when legal issues need to be reasserted after trial for appeal – that’s a must-watch for trial attorneys everywhere. On this week’s episode of The Term we talk through the case’s oral arguments, including comments from justices who served as trial judges or practiced in the courtroom themselves. Also this week, big updates on the most recent high court ethics...
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April 21, 2023 • 28 mins
When do menacing and unsavory statements cross the line from free speech to a "true threat" unprotected by the First Amendment? That’s the question the Supreme Court faced this week as they considered the case of a Colorado man convicted of stalking who says his First Amendment rights were violated when he was denied the right to explain the intent behind thousands of online messages he sent to a singer. We’ll talk through the ques...
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April 14, 2023 • 33 mins
How did some of the world's biggest tech companies come to benefit from a legal supershield making it almost impossible to sue them? The strange saga of Section 230 began 30 years ago with a notorious penny stock firm later made famous by Hollywood, and has now wound its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
This week, in a special partnership episode between The Term and our investigative podcast series Law360 Explores, we track down th...
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April 6, 2023 • 15 mins
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is once again under scrutiny for potential ethics violations following a bombshell report by ProPublica that he has been lavished with luxury trips by a Republican billionaire for more than 20 years. The Term podcast discusses the brewing controversy on this week's episode.
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April 4, 2023 • 34 mins
In a new book, veteran Supreme Court journalist Joan Biskupic takes readers into the cloistered chambers of the court from the Trump years to the Dobbs leak, revealing secret deal-making and brimming tensions between the justices at a tumultuous time for the institution. Biskupic discusses her reporting on this week's episode of The Term.
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March 30, 2023 • 22 mins
A federal law making it a crime to encourage illegal immigration appeared to set off alarm bells for some Supreme Court justices, who worried during a hearing Monday that it could be wielded against charities or even families who urge their "abuelita" to stay in the country. Law360's The Term breaks down the case on this week's episode.
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March 23, 2023 • 21 mins
The nation's most revered courtroom sounded like an elementary school classroom at times Wednesday, as the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court discussed a trademark battle over a poop-themed dog toy. On this week's episode, Law360's The Term discusses the bizarre case, which saw one justice ask whether the toy "purportedly contained some sort of dog excrement or urine."
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March 16, 2023 • 29 mins
Tom Goldstein is retiring from his U.S. Supreme Court practice after 25 years and more than 40 arguments — but perhaps bigger than his legal imprint is how his unusual methods changed the Supreme Court bar forever. On this week's episode of The Term, we talk with Tom about the criticism he faced early in his career as an advocate, why he started the invaluable SCOTUSblog and what he has planned next for shaking up the legal industr...
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March 3, 2023 • 35 mins
The Supreme Court's conservative justices seemed to agree that the Biden administration has exceeded its authority with its massive student debt relief plan, but it's still unclear whether they believe six Republican states and two individuals have standing to challenge it in court. Law360's The Term recaps more than three hours of arguments on this week's episode, plus a new case threatening the Consumer Financial Protection Burea...
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